LAS VEGAS (KLAS) - Video shows swimmers unknowingly pass a woman who drowned in their gym pool in Las Vegas.
On Feb. 4, Letica Triplett, 58, entered the North Decatur Las Vegas Athletic Club’s (LVAC) pool for a morning exercise where she swam and kicked her legs while gripping the pool wall for nearly 25 minutes.
According to Oganna Brown, an attorney representing LVAC, Triplett arrived at the location on crutches before getting into the pool.
While gripping the wall Triplett appears to stop kicking and struggle as her head goes underwater. She then uses the wall to make it to the pool stairs just feet away.
During the struggle multiple people are seen swimming near her and even walk alongside her as they enter the pool, with Triplett appearing to fight for her life.
While at the pool stairs Triplett grabs the handrails and struggles to lift herself up, but falls deeper into the pool and appears to struggle as her head goes underwater.
Triplett appears motionless in the pool after struggling for 10 minutes, with other people walking and swimming by her body with no indication they know Triplett is unconscious.
Another 10 minutes go by as people walk by the edges of the pool. Some appear to stop and look in the direction of Triplett’s body, but no one intervenes.
After a total of 20 minutes since signs of her initial struggle a swimmer in an adjacent pool stops swimming and looks over to Triplett’s body.
That swimmer jumps into the pool and pulls her to the edge where a group of people gather and pull her out.
The Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) investigation report says an LVAC employee exited a nearby locker room and approached the group with Triplett’s body one minute later.
CPR was performed for three minutes by bystanders before paramedics arrived. Triplett was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
Brown characterized the death as unique in nature and cited the decades LVAC has operated without incident.
“In 46 years, there has not been a drowning event,” she said. “This is an anomaly, and this was not a direct drowning event. This was a cardiac arrest."
However, the health district’s investigation found there was a near-drowning a few days following Triplett’s death.
Joel Henriod, an attorney representing SNHD, argued that LVAC customers should not have been the ones to pull Triplett out, and added that without a physical lifeguard, Triplett was swimming in unsafe conditions.
“If it’s not their job to be looking,” he said. “Unfortunately, you might as well be alone.”
Nexstar's KLAS attempted to contact Triplett’s family but has been unsuccessful so far.
